Robert Bagley Professor

Robert Bagley

Profile

Ph.D., Harvard University, 1981

Robert Bagley studies the art and archaeology of Neolithic and Bronze Age China. His special interests include ancient metal technology, the origins of writing, ancient music theory, the comparative study of ancient civilizations, and a range of topics in the broader discipline of art history, e.g., ornament, and the historiography of art.

Teaching Interests

In recent years Professor Bagley has taught surveys of pre- and post-Han Chinese art, a seminar on art historiography, and several undergraduate seminars that treated their subjects in worldwide perspective: ornament, metals and art, writing as art. His graduate seminars deal usually with topics in Chinese archaeology but sometimes range more widely, e.g., one on the origins of writing.

Current Research

Professor Bagley is currently working on a book of essays about the historiography of art and on a general history of art in China, Neolithic to Han. He has written a chapter titled “Art, 1400 B.C. to A.D. 900” for volume 4 of the forthcoming Cambridge History of the World.

Selected Publications

Gombrich among the Egyptians and Other Essays in the History of Art. Seattle: Marquand Books, 2015.